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The Bylaws of One World by Night

One World by Night (OWbN) is a network of international Live Action Role Play (LARP) chronicles. These chronicles are brought together for the purpose of sharing a broad and colorful story that extends past each city's borders. We believe in the sovereignty of each chronicle, so far as it does not impugn upon the cohesiveness of the organization as a whole. We further believe that treating each chronicle, and by extension each player, with respect is the bedrock upon which sound cooperative Storytelling takes place.

Administrative Bylaws of One World by Night

Last Revised: November 13, 2018

Chronicles

What is a Chronicle?

A chronicle is a geographically localized body of players, including STs and a Council Member. The Council Member is assumed to represent the will of the chronicle to OWbN, however the Council Member is not assumed to have the ownership of the chronicle, which is assumed to belong to the body of players as a whole, including the STs and Council Member. Players may also be members of multiple chronicles.

Chronicle Boundaries and Control

Chronicles have full control over the events inside of their boundaries. These boundaries are registered with the Membership Coordinator, but should be well known to surrounding chronicles. Storytellers wishing to run scenes in another chronicles boundaries must first obtain permission from a Storyteller from that chronicle. A chronicle may only claim territory that is considered a reasonable distance from its IC location.

Territorial disputes may be taken to the executive team for mediation.

When a chronicle runs scenes outside their territory, in any capacity, they may not draw significant public attention nor create events that would affect other chronicles. They may not create actions that would damage or alter the political/social landscape of the area or that would cause the area to deviate from the "status quo".

Plot

Chronicles may not direct STs or players that events in other chronicles did not happen in their local chronicle continuity. Events in OWbN chronicles are part of the OWbN continuity, and must be accepted as valid IC events for all OWbN, unless redlined by the originating STs or Council. Chronicles may, however, lessen or change any effects that outside events might have on their local chronicle as long as these changes do not fundamentally alter or end the plot. This does not apply to OWBN Council approved plot, which must be run as passed.

Denying Entry

The Storytellers of individual Chronicles have the right to ban any player from their game. Any player banned from a chronicle must be announced on the OWBN-ST and OWBN-Council lists, included in the Chronicle report, and the player should be notified, if possible.

The Storytellers of individual Chronicles have the right to ask a player to temporarily alter his or her sheet or item cards, or take other actions to be allowed entry into the Chronicle.

The Storytellers of individual Chronicles have the right to deny a character entry into game-play. When doing so, the Storytellers should clearly communicate the reason the entry is being denied to the player.

House Rules

The Storytellers of each Chronicle have the right to craft a set of house rules.

They should primarily clarify or re-interpret the core rules books for the applicable genre(s) for their Chronicle.

They may also be used to define or set the style of play within the game.

They may not contradict the OWBN specific rules as specified in the bylaws or genre packets.

They may clarify or re-interpret the OWBN specific rules to make them more restrictive than stated in the bylaws or genre packets.

Following the Bylaws

All members of OWBN are responsible for adhering to the OWBN Bylaws, Genre Guidelines, Rules and Regulations. However when related to chronicles, the Storytellers and Council Members will be responsible for the actions of their Chronicles.

All votes passed by Council are considered binding. It is the duty of the Council Member to inform their Storytellers and players of any and all revisions to the bylaws, genre documents, rules, and regulations.

Bylaw updates must be revised. The HC and/or AHC are responsible for ensuring this is updated on the OWbN website.

The Genre Documents that have been passed by Council are the sole responsibility of the Genre Coordinators who are the custodians of that Genre. Council Members ought to obtain copies from the Coordinators for the STs and players of their chronicles.

Discipline

Chronicle discipline is the province of the Chronicle Staff; however disciplinary actions passed by Council must be enforced by the Chronicle Staff.

Every chronicle must have a written disciplinary policy. These policies must be made available either on the chronicles' website or at the check-in desk.

Reporting

The chronicle will submit any chronicle disciplinary actions to the disciplinary action database on the One World by Night website within thirty (30) days of the disciplinary action occurring. This database will be available to any ST, Council Member, or Coordinator within OWBN. They may review a list of players with disciplinary actions, or may inquire after a particular member in that regard.

A Storyteller from the chronicle that submitted the disciplinary action may have said action removed from the Archivist's list.

Withdrawal and Expulsion

A full-member chronicle may always voluntarily withdraw from OWBN.

If it is the will of a substantial group of players to continue to play in our Organization, a new Storytelling crew may continue and the chronicle will remain in the Organization with its current membership status.

In order to be eligible to retain their current chronicle membership status in the Organization, they will need to submit a full chronicle report as per Administrative Bylaw 8.D to the Archivist and the Executive Team within one month of the withdrawal under 1.H.i.b.

If a chronicle is under investigation by the Executive Team for expulsion or other disciplinary measures against the chronicle, or if Council is conducting a formal vote which would affect the status of the chronicle's membership, Bylaw 1.H.i.1 does not apply.

When a chronicles is expelled or withdraws from OWBN, players from that chronicle may transfer their characters to other active chronicles, if their transfer is accepted by another active chronicle.

If the chronicle was expelled, any transfers of characters will need to involve the Executive Team as oversight to ensure that the characters being transferred are not party to the reasons for the chronicle's expulsion.

Voluntarily withdrawing from OWBN is effective immediately upon notification to the Membership Coordinator by the Head Storyteller. The Membership Coordinator shall then commence an Exit Interview detailing the reasons the game has decided to leave, which shall be published to Council and ST lists upon full resolution of all necessary transfers and territory allocations and should be concluded in no longer than 3 months time. For this time period, the Game will be considered on Probation for all matters with the exception that Players have 3 months to transfer out characters to another game. Any R&U transfers must be be logged with the Archivist by email and or the website R&U functions.

Council

The Council of One World by Night is considered the governing body of the network and shall consist of:

One (1) voting representative from each full member chronicle. A voting representative may serve as a voting representative for only one full member chronicle at a time.

The Head Coordinator and Assistant Head Coordinators who shall hold one (1) vote each. They may not hold any other votes on the Council, such as being the Council representative of a chronicle.

The votes able to be cast by the Executive Team (Head Coordinator and Assistant Head Coordinators) is expected to be used in the capacity of their administrative duties. Reference Administrative Bylaw 4.B.viii for limitations to this during the Coordinator Election Process.

All administrative and Genre Coordinators may be present on the Council in order to provide information and input to the Council, and on the ST list to communicate directly with member chronicles.

They are considered to be non-voting members of Council, unless otherwise stated in the Coordinator bylaws.

All administrative and Genre Coordinators may be present at meetings of Council, should they occur.

Proposals and Voting Procedures

Proposals

Submission

Only voting members may submit proposals to the Council (unless otherwise noted in subsequent bylaws).

Include in the subject line of the email "[PROPOSAL]" and a short description of the proposal.

The email must include the name of the person making the proposal, the chronicle name, chronicle location and an e-mail address where an Assistant Head Coordinator may contact that person for additional information. The message body must contain the detailed proposal and how it should be integrated into existing bylaws, if passed.

Discussion

Discussion on said [PROPOSAL] shall begin immediately and last for at least a week and the proposal shall be posted on the voting page for record keeping. This week is considered the discussion period.

To suggest a formal change to the proposal, in the subject of the message include [AMENDMENT] and in the body of the message include the description of what is suggested. Any Amended proposal is considered [Withdrawn] and Proposed again with the changes included.

The original author of the [PROPOSAL] may accept or reject amendments at their own discretion, if a change is accepted it should be sent to an Assistant Head Coordinator to update the [PROPOSAL] on the website.

Any official amendment to the proposal resets the discussion week allowing for an additional seven days for any objection or second to be applied.

Second to the Proposal

A Council member, the HC, or an AHC must second the proposal before it can proceed to a vote.

To second a proposal, post with "[SECOND] [PROPOSAL] Proposal name" in the subject line of the message, where "Proposal name" is the title of the draft proposal. In the body of the message, include the statement, "I second this proposal."

A proposal that fails to gain a second within one week of the end of the discussion period is considered to have failed and is removed from the voting system.

Sneaking in under the gun

If a proposal to add or change Administrative, Coordinator, or Character Bylaws are made, nothing which would fall under such an addition or change may be created or approved until after such a proposal's closure or withdrawal.

Should a formal Proposal be made to Council and active, subsequent Proposals made to Council and related to the current active Proposal shall be delayed, and queued in order of their being made.

The next related proposal in the queue shall become active and open for it's discussion period after the closure, or withdrawal, of the current active Proposal or Proposals discussion period and vote.

The proposer or proposers of currently active related proposals may choose to forgo this delay for the next delayed related proposal, at any time while their proposal is active. They may not skip delayed proposals in the queue.

All such proposers must chose to forgo the delay for another proposal to become active. If only one proposer of related proposals exists, it shall be assumed that they choose to forgo the delay, unless they state otherwise.

Administrative Bylaw Changes

Administrative Coordinators may pass before Council any changes to the administrative bylaws, as long as said changes directly affect their position. These proposals need not be seconded, but go immediately into discussion.

If no opposition is voiced during the week of discussion, the bylaw is considered passed and enforceable. Once passed these bylaws are considered binding to all chronicles (as with any other bylaw) and a chronicles refusal to adhere to said bylaw is grounds for OWBN disciplinary measures. Opposition must be in regards to the content of the proposal and must give those reasons why the objection is voiced. This is to allow Coordinator's the opportunity to respond and/or make changes/remove the proposal and its contents.

Uniform standard

Any item that requires greater than a majority vote may not be bypassed with a simple majority vote. This applies to, but is not limited to, the following:

Exception votes. This ensures that something deemed to require a 2/3 majority in council cannot be bypassed with a simple majority "exception to the bylaws" vote.

Admissions votes. This ensures that a game entering OWBN cannot enter with a Very Rare R&U PC with a simple majority vote.

Such votes may proceed, but are automatically held to the higher standard. For example, if a chronicle wishes to enter OWBN with a Very Rare PC, their admissions vote requires a 2/3 majority rather than a simple majority.

When feasible, it is permissible to break any item requiring a supermajority into a separate vote. For example, an apply game with a Very Rare R&U PC may be presented as two proposals - one for basic admission, which would require a simple majority, and one for the admission of the Very Rare PC, which would require the standard 2/3 majority of a Very Rare R&U vote. Failure of the secondary vote blocks only the Very Rare PC from entering play, not the rest of the chronicle.

Any vote that requires greater than a simple majority counts for and against. Abstention votes are not taken into consideration when determining the voting percentages.

Voting

Formatting

A call for voting is posted to the Council with the changes and options to the proposal included.

All options presented in the proposal shall be made available to the Council at time of voting.

All votes must include "Abstain" and an option to reject the proposal.

If it is possible for more than one option to be acceptable this must be stated in the proposal.

Council members are required to use the online Vote Management System found at the official One World by Night website when casting votes. Votes not cast using the official voting system shall not be counted as they cannot be revised in the formal Voting Archives otherwise.

Timeframe

Proposals shall have a voting period of one week from the completion of the discussion period unless otherwise noted in subsequent bylaws.

No amendments may be made to a proposal that is in the voting timeframe.

The Head Coordinator may extend any vote by twenty-four (24) hour increments or multiples thereof by informing Council no later than twenty-four (24) hours before the extension. Extensions may not exceed a total timeframe of fourteen (14) additional days without a mandate from the Council.

The Head Coordinator or Assistant Head Coordinator may close the vote prior to the official date if the outcome is a mathematical certainty.

After the closing date for voting, the votes are counted and posted. The Head Coordinator and Assistants are responsible for changes being incorporated into OWBN.

Vote Archiving of Autopass Votes

Any votes that qualify for an Autopass closing must be entered into the voting system. The vote option shall then simply be "Autopass", which will receive the most votes (1, by the authorized individual closing the vote), and then be closed.

Votes to be archived and closed in this manner include, but are not limited to: Coordinator Genre Proposals, Administrative Proposals, Chronicle Admission Proposals, and General Consensus Proposals.

Quorum Definition for Council

Resolutions before the Council pass if they receive a majority of votes cast, unless otherwise noted in the bylaws.

For proposals with more than two options (including Abstain), the outcome may be determined using one or more of the following ranked voting methods:

Condorcet

Instant-Runoff

The Head Coordinator can change the Quorum definition for any vote on a case-by-case basis.

Player Base Notification

Rules, organizational, and/or game mechanics proposals shall be posted in their entirety on the public OWBN web site for review by the OWBN player base.

This shall be done by an AHC within twenty-four (24) hours of the vote opening.

The Head Coordinator may also indicate additional locations that proposals may be posted.

Any vote results, including comments posted on the online Vote Management System, that relate to a rules, organizational, and/or game mechanics proposal shall be posted in its entirety on the public OWBN web site for review by the OWBN player base.

This shall be done by an AHC within twenty-four (24) hours of the vote opening.

The Head Coordinator may also indicate additional locations that proposals may be posted.

If there should be any question on the appropriateness of players viewing the proposal, the Head Coordinator shall have final adjudicating authority on the posting of said proposal. The HC may call, if necessary, for an immediate vote from Council to clarify whether the proposal should be publicly posted. Such a call for an immediate vote on this subject will place said proposal on hold until the vote is finalized.

Should any proposal inappropriate for players to see in totality include any change, addition, or exemption to the OWBN Bylaws, it must include a Summary Sheet at the end of the proposal or as a separate document. This Summary will include only the changes to the Bylaws including but not limited to R&U classifications or reclassifications, bylaw exemptions, and/or additions to existing bylaws. This Summary will be available for player review.

All proposals that meet the requirements to automatically pass shall be recorded on the online Vote Management System as a single vote in favor of the proposal with the comments section noting, "Automatically Passed due to Lack of Objection."

General Consensus Vote and Autopass Procedure

The Head Storyteller of a game, its Council Representative, or any Coordinator may petition the Executive Team for a General Consensus Vote on an issue that has little impact or significance on the organization as a whole but would technically require a vote per the bylaws.

The Executive Team may then choose to perform the following:

Propose the item on behalf of the Chronicle or Coordinator as a [General Consensus Vote] to Council.

Within 48 hours of the original proposal, the Executive Team may amend a current proposal on behalf of the original author to a [General Consensus Vote] to Council.

If the [General Consensus Vote] is not objected to in the (1) one week timeframe of the normal discussion period, then the issue is considered to autopass as a Coordinator Proposal and be logged into the voting log system. If a designated Council Representative formally Objects to the item, then it shall go to vote normally.

Coordinator Elections

Head Coordinator Elections

The Head Coordinator shall be elected every February remain in office for a period of two (2) years.

Nominations for the position shall open on January 25th and close at the same time on February 1st.

Voting will last until February 14th. In the case of a tie, voting will be held February 15th through 22nd with the former Head Coordinator serving during the interim. No other proposals may be passed or introduced during this runoff.

No proposals relating to this election, election process, or the voting procedure may be proposed nor ratified within seven (7) days of the beginning of the voting period until the end of the election(s).

Other Coordinator Elections

The Head Coordinator will nominate all other Coordinators.

The Head Coordinator will accept applications for nominations for a minimum of one (1) week from the time the application procedure opens, which must be posted to the Council, ST, OWBN-OOC, and mailing lists in addition to the OWbN website.

The Head Coordinator is required to nominate all applicants whom are not disqualified due to orginzational disciplinary actions which would preclude them from a coordinator position.

Should only one person submit an application for a given position, then the Head Coordinator may nominate that one applicant without a second applicant on the same ballot or extend the time for collecting applications as the Head Coordinator sees fit.

The Ballot will be presented to Council three (3) days before the voting period begins for discussion, but no later than February 25th without a ratified proposal granting the Head Coordinator an extension.

The Ballot will be posted on the Council, ST, and OWBN-OOC mailing lists at the beginning of the vote discussion period.

The vote will open on the day after the seven (7) day council discussion period, and close no earlier than the same time seven (7) days later.

All candidates for Coordinator positions will be put on Council during the fourteen day discussion period, and election week, to defend and explain their platforms. Those not elected shall be removed once the voting period is done.

The nominee carrying the most votes on Council shall become Coordinator and shall remain in office for a period of two (2) years.

In case of a tie, the Head Coordinator may either break the tie or hold a run-off election between all tied parties.

The Executive Team - to include the HC and the AHCs - may not cast their votes for any candidates during this election process. The only exception to this shall be that the HC will retain their vote if they need to break a tie once the vote has concluded, as per the above Bylaw.

For a run-off election, only the candidates who were tied will be on the ballot. The option to reject all candidates will be removed. The option to abstain will remain.

If the election is still tied after the run-off vote, the HC will break the tie.

Coordinators will serve beginning two weeks after the election vote for their election closes, including any run-off election that may have taken place. The current Coordinator will be expected to brief the Coordinator-elect during these two weeks on issues and events relating to the particular Coordinator position being assumed by the Coordinator-elect, as well as transfer any necessary documents and historical accounts. This includes (but is not limited to) any email accounts, binding agreements, and electronic mediums that may have been used in an official capacity. For example: Google Forms, Facebook, Gmail, etcetera ad nauseam.

No proposals relating to elections, election process, or the voting procedure may be proposed or ratified from the time the Council discussion of the ballot begins until the time all elections end.

The Assistant Head Coordinator and Second Assistant Head Coordinator positions shall be treated as the same position for application andelection purposes, with the nominees carrying the highest and second highest number of votes becoming Coordinator. This vote shall have multiple acceptable options equivalent to the number of AHC positions available. Thus each Chronicle will receive a number of votes equal to the number of positions available.

Special Elections

Should any Coordinator position become unfilled during a term, a special election must be held.

The Head Coordinator may appoint someone to fill the position until the special election is completed.

The appointee will be treated as an Elected Coordinator, except that the appointee will only serve until the Special Election is complete.

The Head Coordinator will announce the Special Election on the Council, ST, and OWBN-OOC mailing lists and will accept applications for seven (7) days.

The vote will then proceed following the bylaws in Administrative Bylaws, Section 4, Subsection B, Other Coordinator Elections.

Should the position become vacant within one (1) month of the Head Coordinator Election, an appointee may serve until elections are complete.

Election Procedures

Elections, while public, will only show which game has voted, not who they have voted for until after the voting period.

Comments from voting chronicles will also be disabled at the time to ensure anonymity for election votes only.

The HST of a chronicle will be able to see how their CM has voted, but not the whole vote itself, simply how their chronicle has voted in an election.

In any coordinator election where there are 3 or more candidates, a ranked voting system / instant-runoff voting shall be used.

Finances

Statement of responsibility

The Finance Coordinator, on behalf of the network, shall collect all dues and donations. Fees associated with the maintenance of Paypal and Bank accounts shall be paid from OWBN funds.

Account requirements

The Financial Coordinator shall maintain the PayPal account under finance@OWbN.net for the chronicles to send donations, and the payment of server fees.

The Finance Coordinator shall also establish one or more bank accounts for the sole purpose of holding OWBN funds.

Fees associated with the maintenance of the PayPal and Bank accounts shall be paid from OWBN funds.

The Financial Coordinator will include copies of receipts for transactions and bank statements in their yearly report.

PayPal is the preferred method of payment for chronicle donations. Cash, cheques, credit card payments and money orders are acceptable as well.

If a cheque is returned for any reason the financial coordinator will charge the defaulting chronicle an additional fee equal to the bank accounts fee for any dishonored cheques.

Dues and Allocation

Dues shall be set at $20 USD per chronicle per year. Dues will first be set aside for the yearly OWBN server and banking/paypal costs. Dues must be paid by January 31st of each calendar year.

Probationary chronicles are not required to pay dues if they are in their admissions process.

When a chronicle becomes a full member of One World By Night, they are required to pay dues starting the subsequent calendar year.

Chronicles placed on probation after already having achieved full membership in OWBN are still required to pay dues.

Altering overall dues requires a 2/3 majority vote.

Council can discount dues for a single given chronicle due to extraordinary circumstances, international exchange difficulties, or similar reasons with a simple majority vote.

If a chronicle does not pay their annual dues and is not given a discount by Council, they will lose their full member status and become a probationary chronicle.

A loss of full member status caused by non-payment of dues will be reversed when the annual dues are paid or by a simple majority vote from Council.

If there is additional money remaining after the yearly server costs, additional revenue will be added to a Server Reserve fund.

Server Fees

The cost for the maintenance of the server will not exceed $2000.00 USD per year, to be paid as invoices are received.

Reporting requirements

The Financial Coordinator shall make an annual report and it shall be due Dec. 1 for the year. The Financial Coordinator may request extensions for these dates from the Head Coordinator.

Reports shall include a listing of all chronicles that have paid, costs for the year and current funds available and locations of funds (IE paypal or bank account).

Disciplinary Policy

Board of Inquiry

Council shall preside over any disciplinary case that involves more than one chronicle and/or an elected Coordinator, or breach of the OWbN Bylaws by a member chronicle, should any involved bring it to Council through a proposal.

Issuing a OWBN Disciplinary Action

To initiate an OWBN Disciplinary Action a proposal must be submitted to Council proposing an action against a member, where a member is defined as an individual who participates in OWBN.

A disciplinary proposal explicitly does not require that a formal bylaw has been violated by the accused member. Council may utilize the disciplinary procedures to issue disciplinary action any time it feels the shared values of the community have been violated in some way.

The individual member to be issued with an OWBN Disciplinary Action must be sent notification at the same time the Proposal is made to council, via email, or any other acceptable means of notification, and that must be documented within the Proposal and done so by the person Proposing the Disciplinary action.

If after 24 Hours of the notification of the proposal, the Individual has not responded in any fashion that they have been made aware of the proposal, it becomes the Head Coordinator's responsibility to make sure the person becomes aware of the proposal in a timely manner, and all attempts must be documented and presented to council for review.

The Individual Member has the right to defend themselves via their Council Member during the Discussion Period which is normally 7 days unless extended by the Head Coordinator. If the Individual chooses to not have their own Council Member defend them and be their connection to the Discussion of the Proposal, the individual may choose another Council Member or a member of the Executive Team to come forth and act in their defense.The Head Coordinator may extend this period of discussion for any reason, up to twenty-one (21) days by to a total of twenty-eight (28) days from the beginning of the discussion period. Any further extension requires a council vote. The voting period shall not begin until the discussion period has passed.

If no response has been received from the member within the allotted time, and due diligence has been made by the Head Coordinator in an attempt to do so, then the member shall have forfeited the right to a Defense.

Head Coordinator (HC) and Assistant Head Coordinators (AHCs) may seek further information as they see fit for the case. Should it be necessary, the HC and AHCs may appoint a team of members to act as their Subcoordinators for the length of the proposal process to investigate the situation.

The results of the investigation and supporting evidence must be made available to the Council for assessment before the voting period begins.

The Disciplinary Action must be ratified by a majority vote of the Council. The Head Coordinator breaks ties in all Disciplinary Actions.

The vote for a disciplinary proposal will only determine the "guilt" or "innocence" of the party charged. If the majority of Council determines that an individual is to receive punishment, an immediate new vote is opened, lasting for seven days, with choices of all possible OWbN punishments applicable to the situation, as enumerated in the by-laws. The results are to be determined by a top-down ladder style vote. CMs may vote for one option, with the understanding that they agree to accepting any lesser options (not including abstaining). Whichever punishment is determined to have the majority shall be applied to the guilty party.

If the member's behavior is a violation of OWBN rules and values as decided by the Head Coordinator (HC), the Head Coordinator may order an immediate ban of that member from OWBN, whether or not that member has already been disciplined by a chronicle for that behavior.

Following this ban, the Head Coordinator must initiate a disciplinary proposal to council proposing the ban action within fourteen (14) days. If this vote fails or the proposal is not made, the ban is reversed and all effects of the ban are removed from the member.

Treatment of Old Disciplinary Actions

Unless noted in the original proposal, all members with disciplinary actions shall be subject to the restrictions, conditions and durations in effect at the time they were issued.

Members with disciplinary actions that have been reversed or reduced are subject to the restrictions, conditions and durations of their reversed or reduced disciplinary action in effect at the time of the reversal or reduction.

Disciplinary Actions

OWBN Condemnation

This action is to allow Council to condemn an action that does not deserve other punishment. A Condemnation action will stay on the Archivist's records unless it is successfully appealed.

OWBN Censure

Consequences of OWBN Censure

No member holding any OWBN Censure shall be permitted to hold any of the following positions in OWBN: Council Member, Sub-Coordinators or Portraying NPCs for Coordinators or Sub-Coordinators.

Should any member receive three OWBN Censures, that player will be treated as though having received an OWBN Strike.

OWBN Strike

Consequences of OWBN Strikes

No member holding any OWBN Strikes shall be permitted to hold any position within OWBN at the organizational level. Organizational Level positions are: Coordinators, Sub-Coordinators, Council Members, and Portraying NPCs for Coordinators or Sub-Coordinators.

No member holding two OWbN Strikes shall be permitted to hold the position of Storyteller, Assistant Storyteller, narrator, or similar within an OWbN Chronicle, full, probationary, satellite, or otherwise.

Should any member receive three OWBN Strikes, that player will no longer be eligible to play in any OWBN Chronicle, nor hold any position within OWBN.

Removal of Storyteller

A proposal must be made to remove an ST by 2/3 majority, if no disciplinary actions are being rendered or proposed that would prohibit an ST from holding a position.

Procedure that proposal is made followed by one week of discussion, one week of voting for removal. Subsequent to this will be the determination of length of time that ST is not permitted to hold chronicle administrative positions at either 6 months, one year, or indefinitely.

Overturning the removal of a Storyteller requires 2/3 majority vote, following proposal to Council.

OWBN Probation

Upon ratification of the action and notification of the member, the member receiving a Probation Action is restricted to interacting with a single chronicle. The member is not permitted access to the national e-mail lists of OWBN for the duration of the probation; neither may they serve OWBN in any organizational level position during this time.

Probations last for six (6) months, but may be extended through additional disciplinary proposals.

OWBN Temporary Ban

A temporary ban action lasts for six (6) months, after which a six (6) month Probation occurs. During that probation the member may serve in no position, at either the chronicle or OWBN level.

Upon ratification of the ban and notification of the member the member will not be allowed to interact with OWBN in any capacity for the duration of the action.

OWBN Indefinite Ban

This Disciplinary Action grants three (3) OWBN Strikes in one (1) action and will be recorded as the member having received three (3) OWBN strikes, which will be treated as separate actions for reversal.

Removal from Office

This action may be combined with any other action or combination of actions.

This action may only be taken against a Coordinator mentioned in the Coordinator Bylaws, Section 1, or a sub-coordinator of one of those positions.

The proposal containing this action against an elected Coordinator must pass with the most votes to remove them. The Head Coordinator is obligated to use his or her vote to break the tie, if necessary.

Upon ratification of the removal the member will no longer serve OWBN in the position previously held. This action may not be reversed.

OWBN Permanent Ban

This Disciplinary Action requires a 2/3 majority vote to enact, and permanently bans the person from interaction with OWBN in any capacity unless specifically overturned by council proposal. No proposal to reduce or change this action may be made until six (6) months after the ban has been enacted. A proposal to reduce or change a Permanent Ban must also receive a 2/3 majority vote to enact.

Process for appeal or reversal

Reversal of OWBN Disciplinary Actions

Any member who has received an OWBN disciplinary action may apply for a reversal of the action through a proposal seeking reversal of the action from a Council Member, AHC or the HC after one half (1/2) the assigned duration or six (6) months in the case of a strike. Only one action may be reversed per proposal.

Only one such proposal on behalf of a member will be considered per three hundred sixty five (365) days beginning at the ratification of the first action given to the member.

If the reversal would reduce the number of strikes held by the member to two (2), the Head Coordinator must make the proposal and the member will receive a Probation Disciplinary Action for a duration of six (6) months.

Any strikes reversed in this way shall be noted as reversed in the Archivist's record.

Appeal of OWBN Disciplinary Actions

Should new evidence about a disciplinary action become available, a Council Member, an Assistant Head Coordinator or the Head Coordinator may introduce a proposal to appeal the original vote.

If the appeal is ratified, the appealed action is nullified and will be treated as though that actionâ€™s vote failed.

Archiving

The elected Archivist will compile and maintain a record of all members given OWBN Disciplinary actions and the restrictions, conditions and durations in effect at the time they were issued.

This list will be available to any ST, Council Member, or Coordinator within OWBN.

They may ask the Archivist for the list of players, or may inquire after a particular member in that regard.

Following the reinstating of full member status, all positions denied through Probation or Temporary Ban Actions [see section 6.d Disciplinary Actions] are again available to the member. Also, record of the action will be removed from the record of Disciplinary Actions.

The result of an OWBN Disciplinary Action Vote must be announced on the ST and Council mailing lists.

If the result of an OWBN Disciplinary Action is the banning of a member OWBN wide, it must be announced on the OWBN ST list.

At any time during the duration and within seven (7) days after the end of the Probation or Temporary Ban disciplinary actions, the Council Member of the chronicle with which the member is interacting may file a report on the member's conduct and a recommendation to grant another disciplinary action equal to the one ratified by council.

If probation follows a ban, the additional option of granting another ban of the same duration as the original is available to be recommended.

If there are no objections to this recommendation within one (1) week, the recommendation will be executed as though it were a successful vote.

If an objection is made, the recommendation may either be withdrawn or resubmitted as a proposal.

If neither a withdrawal nor proposal happens within seven (7) days of the objection, then it will be treated as though no recommendation had been made.

Should no recommendation be made, the member will be reinstated to full membership status. The duration of this action will be the duration of the original proposal.

Local Disciplinary Matters

Chronicle discipline is the province of the chronicle staff, however the chronicle staff must enforce however disciplinary actions passed by Council.

Visitors to a chronicle are subject to the disciplinary procedures of the chronicle that they visit, just as their characters are subject to the actions of the game under Character Regulations Bylaws Twelve.

Chronicle Admission

Minimum Requirements for Application of Membership into the network

Be active as a chronicle for a minimum of 6 months or 12 game sessions within a one-year period, whichever is longer, prior applying to OWBN for membership. Complete all applicable sections of the OWBN Admission form and submit it the Membership Coordinator. Please refer to the OWBN website for the admissions Form and the current e-mail address.

Include a copy of their written disciplinary procedures with their Application.

Include a copy of any house rules.

Application Review

The Membership Coordinator, a Sub-Coordinator, or a duly appointed representative will be assigned to the Application to review it and work with the prospective chronicle to work out any questions or concerns from the Genre Coordinators and chronicles, including mediation of territory disputes, which may be kicked up to the exec team for mediation if any party requests their involvement.

The Membership Coordinator, a Sub-Coordinator, or a duly appointed representative will then work with the prospective chronicle to shift/adjust any plots that need to be modified to fit into the OWBN structure.

Probationary Vote

The Membership Coordinator, a Sub-Coordinator, or a duly appointed representative will then submit the Application for a "Probationary Admission" vote to the OWBN Council for the discussion period and Admission Vote. If there are no objections during the discussion period, the game Auto-Passes into its Probationary Period.

Possible results for the initial admissions Vote are:

Admission to OWBN for a 6-12 Month probation

Denial of admission

Any Full Membership Chronicle or Exec Team Member may object to a chronicles Probationary Admission, causing it to go to a vote.

Admissions Votes require no Second.

If during this time there are concerns raised by Council about the application, the Membership Staff will work with the prospective chronicle to work out any questions or concerns from Council as well.

Once this has been completed, the Membership Coordinator will inform the applying chronicle of the results of their vote.

Probationary Period

If admitted to OWBN for trial membership this means that the Probationary Chronicle for a period of no less than 6 months.

Probationary Chronicles have the following rights and responsibilities to the network:

Adherence to all OWBN Bylaws, Genre Guidelines, Rules and Regulations.

May not transfer any characters that exceed the guidelines of Sections 2, 4, 6, or 10 of the Character Regulation Bylaws to any other OWBN chronicle without an exemption vote by Council.

Is allowed to have their Storytellers on the OWBN Storyteller e-mail list and their Council Member on the OWBN Council e-mail list. However, the chronicle does not gain voting privileges until they are considered a Full Membership chronicle within OWBN.

Is allowed to have interaction with other chronicles in the OWBN shared-universe and have OWBN PCs interact with their game.

May put up characters to Council for R & U Notify and/or Vote.

During this time the Chronicle must align all past or present Chronicle Items (Player Characters, Plots, NPC's etc...) with full adherence to the Bylaws as if the Chronicle was always a part of OWbN.

During the 6 month Trial Period, the Membership Coordinator, a Sub-Coordinator, or a duly appointed representative shall be assigned to work with the newly voted chronicle to help them adjust to membership in OWBN.

Any OWBN Council Member or Coordinator may post an objection to the Membership Coordinator to bar the chronicle from being automatically granted full membership. The Membership Coordinator will then notify Council of the details of the objection.

An objection may be withdrawn at any time. If the objection is not withdrawn, the chronicle's admission shall be taken to vote at the end of the probationary period.

Full Membership

A chronicle's admission as a Full Membership Chronicle of OWBN must be presented to Council.

The Application must be updated with the chronicle's current information as necessary

If there is an objection to the Chronicle being granted full membership, voting options shall be as follows:

Full Membership

Extended Probation.

Denial of Admission.

Chronicles who are placed on an Extended Probation will be given no less than 6 months and no longer than an additional year in order to better align with what OWBN wishes it's Full Membership Chronicles should be. After this period, the Probationary Chronicle will be resubmitted to council to be either admitted as a Full Member Chronicle or be denied membership.

Chronicles denied Full Membership Status will be allowed to reapply to be a probationary chronicle no less than 12 months from their final Full Membership vote.

Satellite Games

Only Full Member OWBN Chronicles may have Satellite Games under their authority, unless a Satellite game is proposed concurrently, in a separate vote from another chronicle seeking probationary membership (e.g. two games applying together).

A Satellite Game shall be defined by the following characteristics:

Operates under the authority of a Full Member OWBN Chronicle.

Has a significantly segmented character base from the rest of the chronicle, with the two character sets interacting on a limited basis, if at all.

Meets at a separate time and/or location from the Full Member Chronicle.

Operates inside the Full Member Chronicle's territory

Interacts with the OWBN Communal Story without having completed any part of the Admissions Process

All Satellite Games will be registered with the Membership Coordinator.

Satellite Games going through the Admissions Process will remain under the authority of the Full Member Chronicle until they have passed their Probationary Vote. Once they have passed their Probationary Vote they become their own, separate Probationary Chronicle.

The Membership Coordinator shall be the arbiter of what does and does not constitute a Satellite game if there is dispute. This decision may be appealed first to the Exec Team, and then to Council.

Satellite games will be treated as separate games for the purposes of reporting and record-keeping.

Satellite Games to Probationary chronicles going through the admissions process are held to both the rules and restrictions of Administrative Bylaws 7.D.ii and 7.F.

Administrative Responsibilities

Disciplinary Policy

Every chronicle must have a written disciplinary policy which must be made available either on the chronicles' website or at the check-in desk.

Chronicles who do not have a web site must submit their disciplinary policy to the Archivist.

The copy on file with the Archivist is considered the current, official policy of the chronicle.

It is the responsibility of the local chronicle to submit updates or revisions of disciplinary policies to the Archivist.

House Rules

Local House Rules must be made available either on the chronicles' website or at the check-in desk.

Chronicles who do not have a web site must submit any local House Rules to the Archivist.

The copy on file with the Archivist is considered the current edition.

It is the responsibility of the local chronicle to submit updates or revisions of disciplinary policies to the Archivist.

Item Cards

As of May 12th, 2003, no item card shall be valid for play in OWBN unless it has clearly written or stamped on it the date on which this approval was given, the name and chronicle of an OWBN ST who has approved it and will take responsibility for its existence in the network.

The ST who originally approves an item card for play in OWBN may be held accountable to Council for its existence. Items that may be more then they appear should have distinct marking instructing the user to contact that ST for further information or simply limit the use of the item to their own chronicle.

STs may refuse to allow cards they do not approve of to enter play in their game. If an ST feels that a card may be very damaging to the network, he or she may confiscate the card from the visiting player, and return it directly to the responsible STs.

Reporting

All reports are out-of-character information except as specifically and mutually agreed between Storytellers and Coordinators for the sake of story, plot or continuity.

Chronicles that do not speak or write English as a primary language are encouraged to maintain contact with OWBN as above, as best they can. The Council understands that reports may not arrive in English.

Chronicle reporting

Each member and satellite chronicle of OWBN is required to report to the Archivist and OWbN Coordinators via the appropriate Internet submission form on the OWBN website.

A submitted report may be denied by the Archivists if they deem it incomplete or improper.

The Archivists must justify their denial and present guidelines to fix it.

The chronicle may appeal to the Exec Team if they disagree with the decision. The Exec Team will then decide if the report is to be accepted or redone.

OWbN Council will be the final arbiter of any disputes, should Exec Team's decision not be accepted.

In the case of Satellite games, the Full Member Chronicle must be included on all notifications and communications.

The report may be written by any member of the storytelling staff of each chronicle, but must be submitted by either the HST or Council Member, to ensure its validity. These reports shall be due by January 1st and July 1st.

Chronicle reports are to be submitted in order to:

Keep track of your Chronicle so we know you're still operational.

Log any issues the chronicles may have.

Encourage interaction with less vocal chronicles.

Maintain an approximate census of our population.

Keep record of major events within chronicles.

The report shall consist of:

Chronicle Name/Appellation/Location.

Number of games played in that period

Dates of game(s) played in that period.

Average attendance per game.

Major plots that happened in the chronicle

Hereby defined as plot that affected several players over more than two game sessions

In-character (IC) events that may affect other chronicles or territory.

Hereby defined as events that could impact in another member chronicle or coord/neutral territory in a meaningful way

In-character events that may gain Regional or National attention

Regional attention means events that may or have caused PCs, NPCs or mortal authorities in other regional games or nearby areas to take notice. Include IC events that you have informed nearby games and Subcoordinators of.

National attention means events that may or have caused PCs, NPCs or mortal authorities outside of your region to take notice. Include IC events that you have informed distant games and Coordinators of.

The chronicle will submit any chronicle disciplinary actions to the elected Archivist via their regularly scheduled chronicle report, which then will compile and maintain a record of all members given chronicle disciplinary actions. This list will be available to any ST, Council Member, or Coordinator within OWBN. They may ask the Historian/Archivist for the list of players, or may inquire after a particular member in that regard.

The permanent banning of a member from a chronicle under Section 1.d or by the chronicle's disciplinary procedures must be announced by said chronicle on the OWbN-ST and OWBN-Council mailing lists.

A Storyteller from the chronicle that submitted the disciplinary action may have said action removed from the Archivist's records.

Rare and Unique Updates

Chronicles will report change of status in rare and unique characters in order for the Archivist to update the record keeping. This will include all deaths, removal from play, and transfer to another chronicle. The information provided will include:

Character Name

Player Name

R & U Category (Clan/Bloodline/Rogue/etc...)

Type of Change in Status

If transferred - the name of the new chronicle

Failure to submit chronicle reports will result in the following disciplinary action:

One to two weeks after the due date for chronicle reports has passed, the Archivist shall send a private email, to the Head Storyteller and Council Representative of the overdue chronicle, requesting action on the part of the Chronicle.

One month after the due date, the Archivist shall send a message to the OWBN-Council and OWBN-ST e-mail lists. This message shall include a list of chronicles that have not submitted a chronicle report and shall request immediate contact from those chronicles.

Requests for contact shall continue until three months after the due date. If a chronicle report has not been submitted for three months past the due date the chronicle shall no longer be eligible for plot from Genre Coordinators, including Non-Player Character appearances at major events. The Archivist is responsible for notifying Coordinators of the status of delinquent chronicles and working out methods to compromise plot problems should it prove necessary.

From six months past the due date and beyond, with no attempt made to set up a reasonable time frame in which to submit chronicle reports, and no request to the OWBN Council made for an exemption, the chronicle will be put on probation. The chronicle will lose all voting rights, but will not be removed from any e-mail list(s).

Nine months after a chronicle has completely failed to submit chronicle reports or any arrangements for either delayed chronicle reports or exemption, the chronicle will be expelled from OWBN.

These measures are cumulative; meaning that while the chronicle is on probation it is also not eligible for plot from the Genre Coordinators. All measures short of expulsion are immediately ended upon submitting all due chronicle reports.

A chronicle may request an extension from the Archivist who shall accept and grant such requests at his/her discretion. Such requests shall not be considered if the Chronicle provides false information.

Failure to meet an extended due date granted by the Archivist causes the process to resume where it left off.

A Chronicle may also request an exemption from the OWBN Council, at any time, including during the disciplinary procedure outlined above.

Exemptions granted by the OWBN Council give the chronicle the right to not submit chronicle reports for the duration outlined in the granted exemption.

In the case of Satellite Games, disciplinary actions will be placed upon both the Satellite Game and the Full Member Chronicle under whose authority they are registered.

Internet Presence

Official Site

OWBN.NET shall be recognized as being the official website of this organization, and that it shall be the primary representation of our organization to the public, insofar as a presence on the World Wide Web.

The ownership of the domain shall belong to the Council who will designate an individual as the registrar of the domain name. This registrar acknowledges that the domain shall be turned over to whomever Council deems necessary in the future.

Content on any site hosted by OWBN.NET shall belong to the network, or White Wolf, Inc. unless otherwise noted.

The Grapevine LARP Administration utility will be hosted on the OWBN.NET servers, but still belong to its creator, Adam Cerling.

Code of Conduct for the Council, Storyteller, and Coordinator List-Servers

If you are determined to be acting in violation, simply apologize and amend your behavior(s). The Executive Team will determine if you are in violation of the Code of Conduct.

If you persist in the behavior(s) after being warned to stop, you will be placed on moderation for up to one week. Moderated posts will be screened by the Executive Team for continued violations before being shared.

Council Members placed on moderation that are attempting to post items related to their duties, such as seconding or objecting to proposals, may have their posts edited to remove any violations to the Code of Conduct before the item is shared with Council.

The Executive Team will not use moderation or the Code of Conduct as a means of silencing debate or discussion related to the official duties of Council Members, Storytellers, or Coordinators.

Should no further violations occur, moderation will end within 24 hours.

In addition to moderation, official disciplinary actions may be proposed for the Code of Conduct violation, or for continued violations of the Code of Conduct, including any occurring during moderation.

Email Lists

Due to the mature themes portrayed in OWBN, all organizational lists not specifically designated by their moderators as "safe for children" are restricted to those members of the organization who are no longer minors as legally defined by their governments.

A Council Member may petition a list moderator on behalf of one of their underage players, who may or may not make an exception for that player. Whatever method the Council Member uses to determine whether they will petition on behalf of a player is left to the chronicle.

Any mailing list, forum, newsgroup, or other form of IC communication must allow membership for the storytellers of any character who is a member of the list/group. Such access may be designated 'read only' at the discretion of the moderator of the list/group. Information and communications from any group that does not meet these criteria shall be considered invalid for use in OWBN.

White Wolf/CCP/Onyx Path/By Night Publishing Source Materials

To allow time for all members of OWBN to research new materials as they become published a ban shall be placed on the acquisition of any new power, ability, background, item, item card, merit, flaw, etc. from any new publication outside of an OWbN approved Packet made after January 1, 2010 by any PC or NPC, which may be released following a three-month period by vote of Council. Meta-plots, as passed by Council, are exempt.

Legal Position

OWBN will not be held legally responsible for the activities of its individual members.

OWBN will not become involved in any case that is brought before a court of law in any country, other than as a witness to an alleged crime. In such a case, the Head Coordinator may allow release, as specifically requested by the courts, of any evidence that may be held by OWBN (such as archived e-mails).

OWBN will make available such disciplinary measures as are required to deal with individual complaints, either to direct them to the appropriate solution (which may include directing them back to a chronicle) or dealing with the issue itself if deemed necessary.

OWBN will not become embroiled in personal disputes unrelated to OWBN, nor should OWBN be used as a vehicle for such disputes.

OWBN Packets

Definition

OWBN Packets are documents drafted by the Coordinators of One World by Night and passed by One World by Night Council.

OWBN Packets are binding documents for use in the entirety of One World by Night. These Packets represent clarification, changes, and direction of a particular genre or game line they are created for as overseen by the By the Office of the Coordinator that created them.

To this end the following are binding in OWBN Packets: Status and Position Systems, Genre Changes, Genre Directions, Prestige or Rank Systems, and Blood Magic Regulation and Approvals.

All other mechanics, systems, or powers that are intended to be regulated must appear in the OWBN Character Bylaws if they are also included in an OWBN Packet.